HARLINGEN — Plans to build a proposed $2.5 million amphitheater are on hold as officials gear up to launch construction of the second phase of the multi-million-dollar project aimed at turning Lon C. Hill Park into an outdoor entertainment destination.
At City Hall, officials have slashed the second phase’s price tag from $4.1 million to $1.4 million after holding off on plans to build the amphitheater, designed to feature a timber canopy with tier seating, with room for an audience of 792 and 524 more on a grassy hill.
“It’s on hold for further review,” Assistant City Manager Craig Cook said Wednesday.
As officials planned the project, architects put the amphitheater’s cost over the city’s budget, Javier Mendez, the city’s parks director, said.
“The estimates were real, real high,” he said. “It wasn’t going to be large enough to hold large concerts.”
Cook said officials scratched the project from the second phase as the result of the park’s limited space.
Meanwhile, Mendez said officials didn’t want the project to eat up parking space.
“We didn’t have a sufficient size location at the Lon C. Hill Destination Park,” Cook said. “It just wasn’t a good place for the size we thought it should be.”
Awaiting construction bids
In June 2021, the past city commission contracted the Brownsville-based architectural firm of Gomez, Mendez, Saenz to design what was planned as the overall project’s most ambitious phase to date, featuring the amphitheater as its centerpiece.
Now, officials are waiting to open construction bids next week.
During a meeting, Mendez told city commissioners and members of the Harlingen Community Improvement Board the second phase’s price tag’s now set at $1.4 million.
Adaptive field to draw families
As part of the second phase, officials are planning to build a $916,062, 225-foot sports park described as an adaptive field at the corner of Washington Avenue and J Street, across from the Harlingen Boys and Girls Club, designed to make the park a destination for all families — and all children.
“It’s going to have all artificial turf — infield and outfield,” Mendez told officials during the March 30 meeting.
The lighted field will feature shaded bleachers, with dugouts designed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said.
From across the area, the adaptive sports field is expected to help draw families, including those with special-needs children, to the park featuring one of the city’s award-winning all-inclusive playgrounds — sprawling mazes of play stations designed for all children.
The sports park, which could become a venue for the Miracle League, which sponsors teams made up of children with special needs, could also stage Little League games while offering the nearby Boys and Girls Club a playing field.
Walking trail planned
The park’s second phase will include a $727,950, 10-foot-wide, 0.85-mile lighted concrete walking trail running behind Casa de Amistad and the Harlingen Municipal Auditorium, winding to Harlingen Field.
As part of their bidding request, officials are also planning to review proposals calling for a crushed granite surface, Mendez said.
Background
In 2019, city officials launched the project that’s turning Lon C. Hill Park into the area’s first destination park expected to draw families from across the region to pump tourist dollars into the city’s shops and restaurants.
In early 2021, they unveiled the park’s $3.3 million first phase, its looming archway opening into tree-lined pathways winding across a tall pavilion, gazebos and a lighted water fountain.
Now, a tall, arched gateway opens into the super park featuring a $279,025 entry court highlighting an entrance made up of the tall archway looming over stone columns.
Opening into a $554,545 center plaza, the park’s first phase showcases a large pavilion and a lighted water fountain with a 52-foot diameter.
The first phase also features $587,957 worth of winding walkways leading to a pavilion, gazebo and restrooms.
To fund the project, officials are dipping into the Harlingen Community Improvement Board’s budget funded through a one-eighth-cent sales tax earmarked to finance so-called quality-of-life projects.
